Friday, June 20, 2003
Title: The Black Album
Author: Hanif Kureishi
Publisher: Faber and Faber
Shahid is the second son of a suburban family. A family trying to find its place between a Pakistani heritage and Britain in 1989. With the death of his father, Shahid has broken free - fled to college in London. There he has a new world opened to him. A world which quickly becomes split and leads to conflict.
The inspiration to come to this college were the good things he heard about the lecturer DeeDee Osgood, whom he falls in love with quickly, finding himself delighted when she returns his interest. At the same time he meets Riaz, a well respected spokesman for the local Muslim community. While he is fascinated by both DeeDee and Riaz and the cultures they represent they are not complimentary. Coming from an atheist background he struggles to come to terms with his new Muslim friends and their beliefs. The fact that they disaprove of the books and music he loves doesn't help. Books and music that DeeDee encourages, taking him to raves and feeding him drugs.
There is something almost surreal to the journey that takes place in The Black Album. Shahid wandering through a haze of bemusement and confusion. When he is caught up in either part he is determined to reject the other - down with the white woman and her corrupting drugs, switching to love for this woman and a rejection of the fundamentalism and extreme ideas. Everything really comes to a head with the declaration of a fatwa in response to Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses. A background of book burning and flash point politics is described, one which Shahid struggles to deal with.
This is the first work by Hanif Kureishi that I have read, so there is little for me to compare it to, though I've read mixed opinions from those with more experience of the author's work. Personally I enjoyed The Black Album a lot. The first chapter captures my attention straight away. The way in which Shahid meets his neighbour Riaz for the first time is cryptic and mysterious, intriguing from the outset. In some ways there is a lot of rambling wandering - between college, family and activism. But it is here where the picture is painted, where all the parts become a whole. It is the pacing of all these components coming together that makes The Black Album work - evoking a period in time and one man's role in clashing cultures so well.
RVWR: PTR
June 2003
